Letter: A Christian Nation 7/26/15

Recently I wrote a letter to the Naples Daily News on America as a Christian nation. Today, America may not look like the same nation it was in times past. That is because “Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you” Malachi 3: 7. We have forgotten we are on this earth to glorify God which includes “loving your neighbor as yourself,” and we should seek the good of our “neighbor” in all parts of society. We have forgotten that we are to seek good laws to protect preborn children, marriages and families. That would include protecting all children from the corrupting moral influences that want to use the classroom to promote their agenda. We have forgotten that we are to be a good influence on our laws, government and the political process. We have forgotten that freedom of religious expression in our nation was to propagate the gospel message of the saving work of Jesus Christ to all people. We have forgotten that Jesus came to bring transformation not just to our nation but the entire world and to transform individual lives, families, neighborhoods, schools, businesses, societies, and even governments. Let us renew our covenant with God and, “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it” Jeremiah 6:16.

Letter: Christian nation

Former Supreme Court Justice David Brewer once explained: “(In) what sense can (America) be called a Christian nation? Not in the sense that Christianity is the established religion or that the people are in any manner compelled to support it. Neither is it Christian in the sense that all its citizens are either in fact or name Christians.”

Brewer further explains that America was “of all the nations in the world … most justly called a Christian nation” because Christianity “has so largely shaped and molded it.”

Constitutional law professor Edward Mansfield similarly acknowledged: “In every country, the morals of a people — whatever they may be — take their form and spirit from their religion, for example, the marriage of brothers and sisters was permitted among the Egyptians because such had been the precedent set by their gods, Isis and Osiris.”

In America we recognize the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Matthew 22:32) and his definition of marriage is between one man and one woman (Mark 10:7-9).

Therefore, America is not a nation where by law you establish Christianity, but a nation where Christianity is part of the common law.

Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story explained: “One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law.”

President Harry Truman reminded us that: “The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and Saint Matthew, from Isaiah and Saint Paul. I don’t think we emphasize that enough these days.”